From my crappy sketchbook all those years ago all the way to a web-animated series – what a ride its been!

I really enjoy magazines like The Jack Kirby Collector, Comic Book Artist and Alter Ego – and while I by no means want to make this sound like Virtex was ever on par with the creators and characters discussed in those magazines – I feel that it would be neat to have some reminiscing like that on the web for Virtex – before my memory got too bad.

It’s been 5 years since I first got Virtex into development as a comic series – and it has been quite a while since I’ve looked at a lot of the art and images you will find in this "depository." I’ve been wanting to put something like this together for some time since most of the work is in a digital format that they can at least be put together on the Internet – the place in a way where Virtex was born - and hopefully will continue in some form.

Ed Dukeshire approached me earlier this year to develop a new story for Digital Webbing Presents (Ed’s amazing independent anthology series that is the launhcpad for lots of new talent) and jumped at the chance to do what I though would be “The Last Virtex Story” – talking it over with my co-writer Jeff Kwan – it seemed we had a really good Act Two developed and that we should flesh that out before writing the character off completely. You will find that story in DWP #13 available in December 2003.

Even though there were problems, heartaches and all kinds of behind-the-scene scuffles over the course of releasing Virtex in his now three incarnations, it will always be looked upon fondly by me. A crazy 25-year old getting a chance to bring his character to life almost completely on his own terms - finding the talent, designing the characters, doing the publicity – and then working to develop the character in an animated form – we even had two big Hollywood groups come to us about Virtex.

I look back at the comics and the animation, and while it is rough, it certainly had a lot of ideas and imagination. The sharp dialogue by Jeff Kwan and the amazing artwork of Kano really holds up today – ok its not decades old – but still its nice to look back and see that this stuff was quite cool and that at least we had a big enough fan in Ed Dukeshire to bring him back for another - albeit brief – tour of duty.

In all this I would really like to roll out my thank you list of people that really helped bring this vision to life: Jeff Kwan, Linda Lum, Kano, Alvaro Lopez, Eslken Gomez, John Starr, David Haines, Lester Wong, John Wong, Joe and Rob Sharp, Julie Brady, Catherine Smith, Teejay Frias, John Watkins-Chow, Elvin DeGuzman, Marcel, Joel Reid, Toby, Ceasar, Chuck W. the Bardel Boys, Mom, Dad and Little Bro and anybody else I left out that had something to do with Virtex.

Its been a wild ride – so I hope you enjoy this site and let us know what y’all think, y’hear!

Casey Lau
Hong Kong
September 2003